Popote & Talavera Plate

The pictorial art of popote, popular during the 1920s and 1930s, is still practiced by select dedicated craftsmen around Mexico City and by the Nahua Indians of Puebla, Mexico. This particular example is from the Nahua indigenous people, who construct the mosaics out of tiny aniline-colored straws, pressed down one-by-one onto wax-covered and hand-painted Talavera plates. The straws themselves are a type of grass, not usually more than 1 mm diameter, dyed in various colors then dried and painstakingly cut to fit in place. The images depict popular themes from the pre-industrial time period of Mexico, and the back of every plate is made with an eyelet for displaying this rare artwork in your home.